That is, he’s realized that no matter what he does, MMA fans will hate him. What better way to capitalize on that than working back into title contention and joining a reality show that gives him 11 weeks to motivate haters to shell out $49.95 to see him lose against an embattled – but still popular – champion in St-Pierre?

And for bonus points: Rile the Quebec native St-Pierre so much that he forgets what’s kept the belt around his waist. Win the title, have some fun, and laugh all the way to the bank. (And duck when the condiments fly your way at the Bell Centre.)

Koscheck has flourished before reality cameras as a heel and taken every dig possible at St-Pierre. He’s set online message boards afire in the process, though a few deleted scenes showed that he actually did care about the lightweights he coached on the reality show.

But when it comes to his career as a 30-something fighter trying to get while the getting is good, he sees no benefit in trying to play the good guy. Good guys finish last in the UFC – unless you’re St-Pierre.

“I’m a bad guy; what can I say?” Koscheck said. “That’s what everybody believes, so I might as well go with it. I’m here to win fights, make money and be successful. That’s what this is about.

“This is a business, and if I’ve got to piss off 23,000 people, then that’s what I’m going to do. I enjoy what I do, and I’m having fun with this. I plan on pissing 23,000 people off again on Saturday night by knocking St-Pierre out.”

Of course, there’s a difference between being a bad guy and playing one on TV, said UFC president Dana White.

“Koscheck’s a dick,” he said. “Let’s just face it. He’s not a bad guy. He’s just a dick. There’s a big difference.”

Has Koscheck’s act succeeded in distracting St-Pierre? Maybe – because the champ is playing up his striking work with boxing guru Freddie Roach. He’s talking about how Koscheck has gotten under his skin on set.

“I think I have,” Koscheck said. “Georges has a lot of pressure coming into this fight. He loses to a guy that talked a lot of trash, and a guy that isn’t very well-liked around here. … There’s a lot of pressure on him to come out and put me away.

“He really believes that he’s going to knock me out. Well, I hope that’s the case. I hope he tries that. I have no pressure. I’m going to come out and have some fun like I always do, and I can guarantee I’m ready to fight for 25 minutes if I have to. I’m excited about this opportunity.”

And with several more years of experience under his belt since a decision loss to St-Pierre more than three years ago at UFC 74, Koscheck believes that he has the skills to win this time around.

“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses about how I wasn’t ready or I didn’t focus on wrestling,” he said. “He beat me. He came in with a smarter game plan, and he won the fight. It’s been three years, and I’m not the same fighter I was in 2007. I can guarantee you that. I can guarantee that I’m coming out to finish this fight, and that’s my plan.”

St-Pierre’s plan, of course, is to shut up his fuzzy-haired opponent for good. At the podium at Thursday’s pre-event press conference in Montreal, the fired-up champ said the criticism he’s received in the wake of a dominant but unappealing performance over Dan Hardy is misplaced, and he’s going to prove to fans why he’s the champ.

He’s also going to make Koscheck answer for all of his trash talk. If he’s successful, he never again wants to talk about the fighter.

“I’m going to explain to you the thought behind it,” St-Pierre said. “I’m doing this job because I want to be the best. I don’t want to be No. 2. I want to be No. 1. I’ve always been like this in my life. And I don’t only want to be No. 1. I want to be the greatest.

“So now I’m fighting Josh Koscheck. I fought him before. People say, ‘The pressure is on you.’ It’s true. I’m in Montreal. But I’m at my best when I’m fighting in my hometown. But also, if I win against Koscheck, it’s going to be the end of it. It’s going to be two times that I beat him. And if he has the same mentality as me, Josh Koscheck, then he has to reconsider (his) career.

“Because if he wants to be the best, he’s going to lose two times to me. It’s going to take a long time again before he goes to the title, and maybe never again. So he’s going to have to climb up the ladder a long time. So I’m going to beat him Saturday night, and that’s going to be the end of it. I’m not going to talk about him for a long, long time. And I’m going to be very happy.”

McCorkle wins keyboard battle, but can he win fight against Struve?

If UFC contracts were issued for trash-talking, Sean McCorkle would have a nine-fight, multi-million dollar contract in his possession. (The same goes for Chael Sonnen, though McCorkle claims the middleweight uses a ghost writer.) Meanwhile, Stefan Struve would be fighting on a reservation for 500 bucks hoping for a crack at the big time.

Only a few months ago, just about the opposite was true. Only it was real life, and McCorkle was fighting it out as a super heavyweight on the regional circuit, and Struve was under the big, bright lights of the UFC.

Online, though, McCorkle developed a champion’s pedigree in a skill that few fighters really master (whether they need to or not): taking the piss out of someone online. He posted his way to celebrity on the popular mixed martial arts message board “The Underground” and this fall managed to secure himself a deal with the UFC as a heavyweight after going undefeated in nine professional appearances.

After a debut victory at UFC 119 against Mark Hunt, he needed a new target, and one very tall one appeared in the form of 6-foot-11 Struve.

McCorkle claims he didn’t start the fire, but Struve soon created an online contest for the best unflattering Photoshop rendition of McCorkle. Game on. McCorkle fired back with a never-ending streams of insults directed at the Dutch fighter.

Struve (20-4 MMA, 4-2 UFC) told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that he’s never encountered a trash-talker such as McCorkle (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC). While he indulged in a little bit of online gamesmanship, he’s tried to keep it from occupying too much of his mental energy.

“I’m really focused, and I don’t want to get less focused because I have to put stuff on the Internet,” Struve said. “I don’t want to put my energy into that. All my energy goes into training.

“He’s doing it to get some attention. In my opinion, he’s only in the UFC because he got attention for himself on the Internet. His fights weren’t that impressive in my opinion.”

At the podium during the event’s pre-fight press conference, McCorkle took great delight in watching Struve’s seriousness as he spoke about the trash talk.

“I don’t like it very much,” Struve said.

Meanwhile, McCorkle addressed critics who said he doesn’t belong in the cage with such an experienced fighter.

“I’m just really being myself and doing my job and hyping the fight,” he said. “All the guys in the UFC can really fight. Stefan has got a better resume than me. But that doesn’t matter once the octagon door closes. It’s going to be who’s the tougher guy and who implements their game plan.

“Either way, I’ll be better looking.”

Of course, Struve might change that come Saturday night. Then again, maybe McCorkle can prove that he’s as tough in real life as he is on the Internet.

In other main card action, lightweight Jim Miller (18-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) meets hot prospect Charles Olveira (14-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in a bout Miller expects to catapult him into a matchup with a top-10 opponent.

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